NEWS ANALYSIS

'Barry was Muslim'

Daniel Pipes: Teachers and friends say Obama studied Quran in school

Published: 09/11/2012 at 9:46 AM

(WASHINGTON TIMES) Editor’s Note: In this second of a five-part series, Middle East and Islam specialist Daniel Pipes documents evidence from Barack Obama’s childhood years that points to his Muslim identity.

Many pieces of evidence argue for Barack Obama having been born and raised a Muslim:

(1) Islam is a patrilineal religion: In Islam, the father passes his faith to the children, and when a Muslim man has children with a non-Muslim woman, Islam considers those children Muslim. Mr. Obama’s grandfather and father having been Muslims — the extent of their piety matters not at all — means that in Muslim eyes, Mr. Obama was born a Muslim.

(2) Arabic forenames based on the H-S-N trilateral root: All such names (Husayn or Hussein, Hasan, Hassan, Hassanein, Ahsan and others) are exclusively bestowed on Muslim babies. (The same goes for names based on the H-M-D root.) Mr. Obama’s middle name, Hussein, explicitly proclaims him born a Muslim.